damnify

English

WOTD – 16 March 2012

Etymology

From Old French damnifier, from Latin damnifico.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdæmnɪfaɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Verb

damnify (third-person singular simple present damnifies, present participle damnifying, simple past and past participle damnified)

1. (obsolete) To damage physically; to injure.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     he saw himselfe so freshly reare, / As if late fight had nought him damnifyde […]

   • 1638, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, section I:

     The infectious raines most damnifying the poore saylers, who must be upon the decks to hand in their sailes, abiding the brunt […]

   • 1704, Daniel Defoe, The Storm:

     The High Tide at Bristol spoil'd or damnify'd 1500 Hogsheds of Sugars and Tobaccoes, besides great quantities of other Goods.

2. (law) To cause injuries or loss to.

Derived terms

• indemnify

Related terms

• damn
• damnific

Translations

law: to cause injury or loss

• Bulgarian: причинявам щета (pričinjavam šteta)
• Finnish: vahingoittaa (fi)
• Russian: ^{(please verify)} наноси́ть вред impf (nanosítʹ vred), ^{(please verify)} причиня́ть уще́рб impf (pričinjátʹ uščérb)
• Swedish: tillfoga skada
• Turkish: zarar vermek (tr)